He Who Fights Monsters
by MsChupacabra
Summary: Providence was left with a mess to manage following Rex's disappearance.
1. Chapter One

_Author's Note:_

_Written for Bamboo_

_So, I actually assumed Holiday and Six must have liked Providence under White's command better. It made sense to me, considering what it was like before, but this fic hinges on them not agreeing to defect from Providence with him, like they did in canon. Here are the timelines:_

_**Canon:**_

_\- Rex is thrown into the future and is declared missing._

_\- Six and Holiday search for Rex._

_\- Rex's absence is deemed a failure on White Knight's part. The Consortium demotes him and announces Black Knight as the new leader._

_\- Wk forms the Providence defect group and leaves with Six and Holiday._

_**This Fic's Timeline:**_

_-Rex is thrown into the future and is pronounced missing._

_-Six and Holiday search for Rex._

_\- Rex's absence is deemed a failure on White Knight's part. The Consortium demotes him and announces Black Knight as the new leader._

_-Holiday and Six do not agree to join Wk's defect group and Wk takes the Meta Nanite as a last ditch effort to maintain control._

* * *

The color white had a pristine quality that made Providence Headquarters appear tidy, neat rooms disguising the state of disarray they were attempting to manage quietly. Black Knight knew the truth. The Consortium wouldn't have considered promoting her if there wasn't a mess left for her to clean up. That was who she was, a failsafe for the moment White Knight slipped. Losing one of the Consortium's assets officially landed him in their superiors' little black book. She couldn't say she was pleased, but couldn't deny the amusement she took from hearing that White had fallen short of their expectations.

Though the layout of the base was firmly cemented into her memory, she had never seen Providence's Nevada headquarters in person, only through maps and video feed. But the color of the building bothered her, bordering on blinding as she made her way through the hallways. The wretched scent of bleach and antibacterial soap lingered in the air, sickening her further. Immediately, she began making mental notes of the things she would change to better suit her tastes.

What separated Providence's station in Nevada from their other locations was that it was their main base of operations, but they were all designed similarly. Since she would be taking over, she was required to conduct an inspection of the way they normally operated. Her eyes surveyed the familiar, cold halls as she was guided around by Providence's captain, soon to be her own subordinate. Not that he was aware of that much yet. Captain Calan was only informed that her visit was a simple, standard inspection, not in preparation for the major changes that were going to happen.

"Show me to the Public Office." Black Knight instructed her guide. Calan stopped walking, surprised she knew that there was such a room. Impatience was a poor trait to have, but she was growing tired of being led around by the personification of a golden retriever. It was time to cut to the part where she could speak with White Knight, she wanted the satisfaction of tearing into him while he was already down.

"Right this way." Calan agreed warily, but obedient nevertheless. He walked swiftly, her own steps matching his strides with ease. The anticipation she did not allow to show was humming beneath her skin, pride pounding loudly in the accelerated beat of her heart. A smirk twitched its way onto her face, only growing when they reached the White Knight's broadcast monitor.

"You may leave now." Black Knight allowed coolly, finger hovering above the 'call' button.

"M'am, I mean no disrespect, but it's mighty easy to lose yourself around here." Calan hesitated, lingering behind despite her command. Her lips thinned in displeasure.

"I can find my way around just fine. You may leave." She repeated without another word to the captain. She contacted White Knight's office as the sound of Calan's retreating footsteps signaled he was leaving them to speak alone.

Not much time had passed since she'd last seen him in person. Three years. This could not even be considered a face-to-face visit, when White was locked behind magnetic, sterile walls. Those facts were rendered unimportant when the monitor flashed to life. The medium that served to facilitate their reunion made no more difference than if she'd been standing right in front of him. Somehow, seeing his face sapped away the smugness that had been fizzling in her veins.

"Come to gloat?" He sneered. Though he was masking it with irritation, his shoulders were slumped, his voice quieter than she remembered.

Yes, She thought. That was partly why she asked to be shown to the public office. This exchange wasn't necessary, it was because she wanted to. Or thought she did. Black Knight lost the words she'd been looking forward to saying.

"I have to hand it to you," She found her place once more, folding her arms across her chest. "You don't drop the ball often, but when you do, you fuck up in the worst way possible."

White's eyes narrowed. Good. This was still her victory lap, she wasn't going to let him forget that. Before she allowed him any ounce of compassion, she had to make sure he knew it was coming from a place of superiority. He inspired within her the same kind of pity that a lashed animal would.

"You seem to be handling the situation well, all things considered." She lied. Providence was beginning to fall apart. The global public knew it, impacted by the loss of their only cure for an apocalyptic epidemic. She knew it because the organization was being placed in her hands. From where she was standing, White was faring no better than Providence, if the exhausted bruises beneath his eyes were any indication. He was falling apart too.

There was no need to tell him what they were all aware of. She would let him keep the illusion that they were doing a fine job maintaining their image. Ungratefully, he scoffed at her, unaccepting of her praise.

"Yeah? Then what are you doing here?"

Black Knight dropped her attempt at playing nice. "Guess there's no reason to sugarcoat the news. It won't make it easier for you to hear. You're being dismissed from your position."

The lack of surprise on his face suggested that he had foreseen that the Consortium would remove him from his position the moment he failed to meet their expectations. She hadn't been surprised either. There would be no point to her if White were irreplaceable to them.

"They'll send the missive out to you in a few days." She continued, no longer looking to spare his feelings.

"Let me guess, they've got you lined up as my replacement?"

"I'm not allowed to disclose that. It's confidential information."

"Of course it is…" He drawled. "Still doesn't answer my question though. You just said that the Consortium's going to send me the details, so what are you doing here?"

"It's like you said," She answered, annoyed over the way he spoke to her. She wasn't obligated to explain herself to him. There was just one problem, her initial desire to gloat over White's recent string of failures had been killed. "I'm here to rub it in. I wanted to see the look on your face."

Oh, but the look on his face.

It was too pathetic.

This was unlike all of their childhood sparring matches, lacking the rush of exhilaration that she expected to flood through her system. She realized that somewhere along the years, she had grown tired of competing with him. It felt like she had lost something, the last link that held them together, the shared sense of rivalry. Now, he knew what it was like to be thrown aside, just like her. There was no triumph in getting an edge on White because earning the favor of their fickle superiors wasn't worth much, when their preferences could change at the drop of a hat. In the eyes of the Consortium, they were only game pieces to be used and broken.

But she had nobody else.

"That's it." She finished, turning away from him so that she wouldn't have to see. "Don't get too heartbroken now, it could have been worse. You're past due for retirement anyway."

Stepping out of White's public office, she returned to the barren hallway. Her eyes flickered around, searching to see if the captain had lingered after she had ordered him away, but the corridor was vacant. In the distance, she could hear the faraway marching of boots. Not all personnel had vacated the premises, but the only immediate source of life came from the open door behind her. Light from the glowing monitor spilled onto the glossy, unblemished surfaces of the walls. Black Knight let the door shut with a soft click, cutting off the steady stream of light.

She had an inspection to finish.

She continued her tour of the facility alone, unaccompanied by Calan this time. Rejecting his assistance hadn't been a show of pride, there were only a few rooms left to visit anyway. The most notable sections of Providence were its laboratories and the petting zoo, the self-contained ecosystem that had been around since the early days of the organization's formation.

The main unit connecting the individual laboratories together was a spacious room in the shape of a semicircle. It was a tower overlooking the petting zoo, with multiple levels and lofty ceilings. The entrances and exits of the tower were located on the first floor. The same level extended down a path to the front of the tower, where a series of glass window panes had been built to bring the sunlight in and put on display the lush vegetation of the petting zoo. She couldn't quite make out the Evos housed within the enclosure, the thick trees were hiding them from her sharp eyes.

A staircase descended down to the lower levels. It was the second floor that was used to store most of the laboratory equipment. Black Knight found that most of the heavy machinery was kept there, a CT scanner taking up space in the center of the room while computers were positioned to the right side of it. Clean glassware sat on polished countertops; Erlenmeyer flasks had been left out to dry, along with the beakers and test tubes, all still spotted with remnants of water. Flitting behind her eyes was the impulsive desire to hurl one of the gleaming containers against the sleek computer monitors and litter the ground in glass. She refrained from doing something so pointless just to satisfy a childish urge. Black Knight was simply growing annoyed with the flawless state of order that seemed to embody Providence.

* * *

Three months into Rex's disappearance, he failed to understand why Six and Holiday bothered looking anymore. It wasn't that White had a pessimistic outlook on the possibility of finding him, just the opposite really. He was sure he would turn up eventually. The kid had a knack for being impossible to stamp out. Whenever and wherever he surfaced again, it would be easy to pinpoint his location; all they needed to do was follow the source of the most noise. Rex was always at the center of trouble.

There were more pressing matters to be dealt with, the more immediate consequences that followed Rex's absence. The blame fell almost entirely on his shoulders, but the loss of titles and prestige were the least of his concerns. Public opinion wasn't worth a damn thing, and it wasn't as though his face was a popular one anyway. The real issue was the short list of his possible replacements.

"We're going to stop devoting our resources to search parties." White privately announced to Six, Holiday, and Calan after one of their routine briefings had concluded. "There's something more urgent we should be focused on."

His order was directed mainly at Calan, who had been heading the investigation from the start. Technically, he should have only involved the captain in the discussion, but he allowed Holiday and Six to remain, knowing that they were emotionally invested in finding Rex. Being upfront about the new direction they were going to take was also his way of dealing with the inevitable backlash sooner rather than later, since they'd been conducting separate search missions of their own.

"If that's what you think's best." Ever the diligent soldier, he nodded shortly in response to instruction. Calan was capable of putting duty before heart.

"What?" Holiday snapped. From behind his monitor, he could see that her shoulders were tightly tensed. Already on the defensive. It was a good thing that Providence didn't operate democratically or nothing would ever get done.

"What could be more important than finding Rex?" She asked, lips pressed together in disapproval.

"As you know, this organization's formation was only made possible through the contributions of other parties," White stated, folding his hands across his desk. "Some of them have more of a say in what happens to Providence than you might think. They don't just toss money our way, cover their eyes, and hope for the best. We ought to start planning for what they might do now that Rex is gone. Don't get the wrong idea into your head, it's not that I don't want to find him, or that I don't care, but we're also responsible for cleaning up the mess his disappearance has left us with."

"We're responsible?" She repeated flatly. "Don't you mean you are? It sounds like your benefactors are coming down on you pretty hard. What do you think they'll do exactly?"

"I'm in the process of being removed from my position as your leader." He answered bluntly, making Holiday lose her look of contempt. Though White was usually much better at masking his own emotions, he couldn't help the brief flash of surprise that flickered across his face at how easily she recognized the gravity of the situation.

"Have they chosen your replacement yet?" Six asked. Contrasting Doctor Holiday, there was no alarm in his stance. He didn't seem fazed by the idea of having a new leader.

"They haven't revealed their choice." He answered him bitterly, lip curled into half a snarl. It was a partial lie. He had a pretty good idea of who they were going to pick, but the Consortium was leaving him in the dark for the most part.

"That is a problem. Better the devil we know... The last thing we need is a new face overturning some of the better decisions and reforms you've made." Holiday agreed, smiling wryly. All the fight left her in a breath, her shoulders losing their rigid defensiveness.

Was she afraid that a new leader would steer Providence back toward their former policies concerning EVOs? Before they had their cure, obeying regulation was always easier for White than it had been for Holiday. All he had ever been responsible for was hunting down those who had been mutated by nanites. After he handed them over, his hands were forever wiped clean of them. Out of sight, out of mind. She, however, was more intimately aware of what happened to all of those captive EVOs. Now that Rex was gone, there was no reason why things couldn't return to the way they were before; and, because White had nominated her for her position as chief research officer, it was also possible that her seat would be up for election once they removed him.

"I just think that's all the more reason to keep our attention on getting Rex back home." She circled back around to her initial talking point, making White grit his teeth.

"Did you not hear a word I just said?"

"If their main problem is that we lost their cure, then finding him should satisfy your board of directors."

He was losing his patience with her. "Yeah. That would be all well and good if everything always went according to plan. The fact is, we don't know how long that's going to take. Months? Years? You and Six are too emotionally invested in-"

"Do not." Holiday cut him off, leveling a warning glare at him. "Do not say I'm being too emotional while painting yourself as the only sensible one in this picture. Especially not when you have a history of jumping the gun. Your response has always been immediate action. Need I remind you of how we lost Rex in the first place?"

Before he could say anything, Six quietly interjected, favoring her side. "Even if we were looking at our current circumstances and placing our feelings first, would it be so wrong? Being pragmatic is fine, but it isn't everything. Providence, as an organization, has a track record of removing important human virtues from their methods."

White went still, but he could feel his ears and face burning, heart constricting painfully in his chest. He knew that people tended to believe he was sentimentally detached, he just never thought that Six believed it too. Suddenly the discussion became more than just about Rex. "Is that what you really think? That I've lost my humanity?"

Six shrugged. "I never said that, but if you're proposing we set aside our sentiments, then I'm not following you. You and I have had first-hand exposure to the tactics Providence resorted to when there was no cure available. That version of Providence is one I never intend to return to, with or without you acting as its leader."

How... infuriating. His words sounded very much like an accusation, and how dare he. How dare Six, his former friend, treat him as though he were incapable of acknowledging his past mistakes. Mistakes that landed him in a sterile prison, isolated from the outside world. He paid for his mistakes and considered himself a fair leader, certainly not the kind of leader who would make biased decisions.

"If you waited about a minute longer and listened to what I had to say," He retorted, giving one measured exhale in an effort to expel the hurt,"you would have known that I was never going to suggest taking Providence back to the Good Old Days, partner. I was going to propose we begin backing out of the organization completely. It's about time we formed a coalition of our own. There are too many other hands who've got Providence in a chokehold."

"With all due respect sir…" Calan looked hesitant. He didn't say it directly, but the lack of faith was there, present in his tone. "You're sure talkin' big game, but we rely an awful lot on those hands you're looking to go biting. We'll lose all our men. All our firepower. "

"And our means of finding Rex." Holiday finished, taking a step backward. She turned around and began making her way toward the door, without sparing another glance at him. "You already know my vote. I refuse to give up on that boy. Not after everything he's gone through for us."

Six watched her walk away, then returned his gaze back to the monitor. "They're right. Providence lost its biggest asset when Rex went missing, but it has yet to lose everything. We, on the other hand, will be left with nothing if we pull away, and Providence will go unchecked with its remaining power. Not ideal when we don't know whether or not the new leader will be trustworthy. The best thing we can do for now is remain here to monitor the situation."

There was something else he was holding back. Something else White could tell he wasn't saying,

"Is that it?" He demanded impatiently, urging Six on. "What else do you have to say?"

"Retirement doesn't mean the end of you, just your rank. It might do you some good to step back for a while. Take up a hobby."

"I hear yoga's getting popular." Calan chimed in, attempting to be helpful.

It was White who cut the transmission, his monitor fading to black on his displeased face. And while he may have been the one to shut them off first, they had shut him down in the way that mattered. He was without a friend or ally after all the work he'd done for the organization.

His fingers dug themselves into the surface of his desk.

Even the threat of an outsider taking his place was not enough to rally support. Why would it have been? He shouldn't have been surprised, seeing as how he wasn't well liked; in fact, he was so unliked that they were all content to welcome the coming Consortium threat. He was going to have to stand aside to watch the Consortium strip Providence back down to what it once was. His co-workers were willing to risk losing all they had accomplished together for the sake of trying to recapture lightning in a bottle. It was just insanity.

And he was all alone.

The bleak thought kept churning in his head all through the dead of night, while White was reviewing the base's security footage. He rarely ever slept through an entire night, usually because of his work, but there wasn't much that could be accomplished when his days were numbered. Insomnia never cared whether or not he kept busy, he couldn't close his eyes just the same. The video feed was mind numbing noise for the restless, his sleep-deprived gaze swept the digital halls of the headquarters he could never walk.

Without the constant march of soldiers moving up and down the corridors, the building was lifeless. It was the stillness that made it impossible to ignore his own thoughts.

This was going to be the end of him.

The flash of a message alert brightened up his screen. It had been dimming from inactivity. White stiffened, eyes flickering down to the small text box that could not have possibly been a breach in security. Providence had an incredibly secure network, which meant that the message could have only been sent internally.

It was the notice.

_[Providence_

_January 2, 2012_

_12:00 am_

_Memo: Dismissal_

_Adam,_

_This letter confirms your dismissal from your role as chief executive at Providence for poor performance, effective immediately. You are to continue following proper safety procedures to ensure you remain uncontaminated. No further action from you is needed._

_Regards,_

_The Consortium ]_

White's fingers twitched, hesitating over the keyboard, halted by the uncertainty of whether or not he should reply to the message. He'd never failed to respond to any of their memos. No further action from you is needed, they had written. All sense of direction left him, the contents of a single message had robbed him of his aim and purpose. His jaw tightened and he pushed his chair backward.

Their final order was the command that struck him the funniest. His mouth twitched. Although they had labeled him a failure, they were still preoccupied with keeping him nanite free, trying to squeeze out of him the last bit of use they could. Of course. They couldn't completely decommission their poster boy for Providence. It was never what he had done for the organization that mattered. He was still only an object to them. He sat still, like discarded garbage in a room that would soon be forgotten once Black Knight took his place.

White could only stare at the softly glowing screen that seemed to promise the end. For the longest time, his identity had been tied to being the only man on Earth without nanites. The irony was that, even though he was the only person left purely human, he was still a monster in the eyes of those who served under him. Six practically said as much to his face.

So did it really make a difference if he was infected or not?

Standing from his desk, he approached the floor panel that hid the Meta-Nanite behind it. White pressed his palm to the board, activating the mechanism that opened the secret compartment.

Rising from the ground was a metallic box containing the means to part him from his humanity. Without further hesitation, White took the injector from its box and plunged it into his arm. Blood dripped from the puncture site, sealing his fate as it stained the white floor.

After everything he'd given up for Providence, this was almost laughably easy. As easy as a poke to the forearm. He could finally live up to their expectations.


	2. Chapter Two

"You don't seem to care that the kid is gone."

Rex's absence left his chimp sidekick with a lot of free time on his hands. Whereas before he would waste his days goofing around with the teenager, he now spent his lonely hours making himself a bit of a nuisance in Caesar's lab. The elder Salazar had welcomed him when he first began appearing in his workspace, feeling pity for his brother's animal companion. When he discovered just how talkative Bobo could be, he immediately regretted giving him the permission to stay. Caesar could usually get away with ignoring him until the chimp grew bored enough to leave on his own, but this time, he was being really offensive.

"Oh really?" He hummed, trying not to let annoyance leak into his tone. "Where did you hear that? Rumors from the Providence soldiers you gamble with?"

"No." A pause. "Yeah, maybe."

Caesar gave a genuine chuckle, never once looking up from one of the trackers he was disassembling. He thought that would be the end of the topic, but Bobo pressed the subject further, "You didn't answer the question."

"You never asked one."

"Shouldn't you be more worried about Rex? What if he doesn't come back?"

"You and Rex have watched too many soap operas." His lips twisted into a bland, hollow smile. "What should I do to show my grief the 'right way?' What would stop the idle gossip? Should I despair to the point I can no longer function?"

"Didn't say you needed to. Breaking down is one thing. You could at least look a little torn up about it."

"Of course I am upset, there should be no question about that. He is my brother."

"And he's my best friend. When he went missing, you couldn't even pull a frown."

"I did not think I had to prove that I care about my own brother." He said dryly. "Especially not to his pet monkey."

He would not grieve over his brother as though he were already dead.

"Chimp."

"At the moment, the only thing you are to me is… annoying."

Whatever else the animal might have said, Caesar tuned out, turning his attention back to the tracker he was tuning up. He wanted the device to be in top shape on the off chance that it would register Rex's location, wherever it was he reappeared. Too absorbed in his work, he nearly missed an observation Bobo voiced about the state of his lab.

"... like shit. Didja blow somethin' up?"

"Pardon?" He blinked a few times, not following Bobo's train of thought. He would never trigger an unreasonable explosion.

"The wall. Looks like shit." He repeated.

Bobo was right. When Caesar followed the direction of his gaze, he realized he'd overlooked tiny, weblike fractures defacing the surface of the wall. The cracks were thin, but the damage was extensive, trailing upward toward the ceiling. A careless janitor? A clumsy lab technician?

"No, that was not me." He said, losing interest in favor of returning to his work. "I'm sure someone will come along to repair it. It is only the wall."

Bobo slid off of his stool, grunting in annoyance. "Yeah, hopefully. Knowing you, you'd probably just leave it."

The chimp left the room. Caesar thought he would feel the relief of silence, and he waited to be at ease again. Bobo's presence filled him with agitation. Tuning up his equipment was difficult when he had to drown out the mindless chatter in the background. But when he was left in complete silence, the ease never returned. His situation did not look good, and Bobo did not improve matters, but at least he provided background noise as a distraction.

He understood where Agent Six and Doctor Holiday were coming from. Worrying about his brother for sentimental reasons was one thing, but Caesar's concern went beyond them all. He was thinking about the Meta-Nanites. He and his parents had always intended for Rex to use them at their full power. With him gone, Caesar didn't have the privilege of slowing down to process his own feelings. Eyes flickering back toward the fractures in the wall, he sighed and propped his chin up on his palm.

"Computer, connect me to White Knight." He called to the empty room. The robot dialed White's office. The breaks in the wall weren't urgent, but now that they'd been pointed out to him, they nagged in the corner of his mind.

One of the communication monitors emitted a sound, signalling that White Knight had answered him. Without glancing up away from the wall, Caesar made his request, "I think one of the lab technicians cracked the wall. I wanted to let you know, just in case you wanted to send someone to fix it. If not, that is fine too."

Whether or not it actually got fixed didn't matter. It was a courtesy. The workspace was given to him by Providence, but he didn't own it. Maintenance was decided by them.

He turned his head toward the monitor when White Knight did not reply. Instead, he was gazing down at Caesar with unconcealed disdain. What stood out to Caesar the most however was the unnatural glow of his eyes. They glimmered a brilliant gold, signifying nothing good.

Caesar swallowed thickly.

"Oh White… You are unwell."

* * *

Six inhaled.

Sand-filled targets stared back at him, shredded beyond recognition by his blades. While his mind was away in far places, his aim remained impeccable. Finished with the practice dummies, he slid his weapons back into their sheaths and began picking up after himself, considerate of the fact that he wasn't the only one who used the training room. He hauled one of the targets up into his arms, a replica of a humanoid evo the size of an adult male. After successfully moving it into one of the disposal bins, he took the other and dragged it into the heap as well. A loud thump managed to make him flinch. His head whipped to the side, and he realized that it had only been the door. He was met with the sight of Holiday's amused, but exhausted expression.

"Jumpy?" She inquired.

"No." He denied. It wasn't a lie, he just hadn't expected her. "You look tired."

"I can't get anything done." She confessed. He knew how she felt. Work hadn't been easy after they had lost a vital member of their team, and the future looked uncertain without him.

"Want to grab a coffee?" Holiday offered with a weak smile. There was no harm in joining her. It wasn't as though he was being productive anyway. Standing from his hunched position, he followed her lead out into the hall.

"It's freezing in here," She muttered without being prompted, rubbing her hands together for friction. "My room and the lab were both so cold this morning. The central heating might be going out."

Like her, Six had taken notice of the drop in temperature too. Unlike her, he was unfazed, having endured harsher conditions.

"That's just perfect, isn't it?" She continued, more frustrated with each word. "It feels like everything that could have gone wrong finally came crashing down on us. I mean, has anything gone right lately?"

"Things break. It's only the heating." Six stated mildly, sticking to the surface level issue in an attempt to keep her from becoming too upset. "They'll call in the repairmen."

"Six, you know that's not what I mean…"

"It can be fixed."

"How?"

Six made it into the elevator, but he wasn't given the opportunity to respond. Abruptly, the doors slammed shut with enough force to take an arm off, trapping him inside and separating him from Holiday.

"What the-" Holiday attempted to pry open the doors with her hands but they would not budge under fingers.

Six attempted to help, pushing at the doors to no avail.

"Hang tight, Six. I'll call someone to get the doors open…"

He waited, but Holiday never did return with help.

When the lights flickered out, leaving Six in complete darkness, he began to suspect that Providence was experiencing something more than mere maintenance issues. Right as the wariness crept into his system, the shriek of metal pierced the air. The elevator car slipped. Six could feel the box quake, nearly thrown off balance by the force of its shaking. Throwing a hand out, he caught himself on the wall, his eyes straining to find an escape in pitch darkness.

The car jerked to a halt, jostling him once more.

Faintly, he could make out the outline of the elevator's emergency exit overhead, far out of his reach. He knew that if he leapt for it, the elevator would go plummeting into Providence's basement. If he did nothing, he would most assuredly suffer the same fate.

Steeling himself both mentally and physically for the impromptu gymnastics he was going to perform, he inhaled once and held his breath. Missing the hatch was a mistake he could not afford. Without hesitation, he leapt for the handle, his fingers locking around it like a vice. The elevator car trembled precariously in warning. Cautiously, he slowed his movements in response, taking care to gently slide the door open before pulling himself through the hatch.

It took immense effort to support his own weight without further disturbing the elevator. He scaled the cable holding him up, working his way back toward Providence's upper floors. Metal scraped against the walls, indicating that the elevator had finally fallen behind him. The box clanged and crashed until it hit the ground with a deafening slam. Six could feel his bones rattle from the force of the vibrations.

He had to find Holiday.

Grunting, he continued his ascent. The cable rubbed against his palms unpleasantly, not unlike rope burn. It was only mildly uncomfortable though, his palms were rough and protected by the calluses that had formed on them from years of swordsmanship. When he got to the opening of the second floor, he swung himself back and forth, gaining momentum before leaping through the entrance. Landing smoothly, he surveyed the area in silence. The lights weren't working there either, but Six was able to see better than he could when he had been in the elevator. Stealthily, he crept through the building, making his way toward the stairs. It was cold, and it only grew colder as he walked down to the first floor.

When he got to the bottom of the staircase, he found himself right back where he started. He was still on the upper levels of Providence, as if the staircase had only brought him back up.

His eyes narrowed.

"Six!"

The agent turned around when his name was called. It was Rex's loyal pet monkey. Bobo froze when he met face to face with the pointed edge of Six's blade.

"Hey, hey. Watch where you're aimin' that! I'm already missing an eye."

Six didn't lower his guard.

"Prove that you're who you say you are."

Unsure of how he was supposed to do that, Bobo floundered for an answer. "I don't exactly go around carrying an ID."

"I want proof."

Bobo grunted in annoyance. "When Rex was smaller, he liked to steal your suits. Once, he spilled some coke on one of your jackets and tried to wash it out before you noticed. He ain't the brightest though and threw it in the laundry with his own clothes. That's why it came out pink."

Six lowered his sword. "We need to find Holiday and White Knight and get them to safety. If White Knight's office is breached, there's no telling what will happen.

"Sounds easier said than done."

"What do you mean?"

"It's been quiet without the kid around. He grew on me yanno? So I've been spendin' some time in the lab with his brother. It isn't the same at all, and I can't stand the rat for long periods of time. He pisses me off and I just can't stand looking at him-"

"The point. Get to it." Six interrupted.

"Yeah yeah. Keep your pants on." Bobo hushed him. "So he pissed me off and I got up to leave, only the hallway was bigger than I remembered it. Dunno how, but the layout of the base keeps changing, leading me around in literal circles."

"We need to find a way out of here and evacuate as many people as we can." Six told him. If the halls were trapping them then they'd have to take another route. He began making his way toward the elevators again. Hopefully it would effectively get them out of the maze Bobo claimed he'd been stumbling through. The chimp took a single look into the dark, unnerved by the depth. How long would it take to reach the bottom? It was a narrow channel. They would effectively be cornered.

"I don't like this."

Six ignored him and jumped, latching onto the control cable. He began his descent without checking if the chimp was following behind. Given the fact that Bobo was a primate, it should have been far easier for him to climb down. He felt the trembling of the cable when he was eventually joined on the way down, where the first floor's exit was blocked by the elevator car that had fallen.

"Shoot it through." He ordered Bobo, who grinned enthusiastically and raised his blaster. In a plume of dust, the wall came crumbling down.

"Where are we going?" Bobo huffed as he exited the elevator shaft. "White Knight's office isn't this way."

"We're going to find Holiday first."

The halls were empty. Whether that was a positive sign or not, Six was left uncertain about his co-workers' whereabouts. If someone was using their base of operations to play mind games with them, they wouldn't have let everyone leave so easily. It couldn't be that everyone had vacated the premises. They still had to be somewhere in the building.

They halted at the doors to the laboratory. Before either of them could so much as lift a hand to push them open, the doors did so of their own accord.

"I don't like this." Bobo said for the second time.

Unlike the rest of the building, the room was not engulfed in darkness. One of the monitors pitched a dim glow over the lab, broadcasting static rather than the face of his boss. Aware that he was walking into a trap, Six stepped in and drew his sword.

Inside, Caesar was facing away from them at his workstation. His slumped posture indicated he was most likely unconscious, but when Six took a step toward him, he jerked upright and angled his entire body toward him. His head continued to loll slightly forward.

"Six!" He smiled in greeting. He didn't seem to be grinning because he wanted to. The glee on his face was uncharacteristically frenzied for the composed man. At first, Six attributed the brightness of his eyes to the computer. After examining him longer, he realized that the unearthly glow came from his eyes.

Six held a hand up to stop Bobo from inching closer. "That's not Caesar. Look at his eyes."

Bobo examined that man too, tensing when he realized what Six meant. "Forget the fucking eyes. I'm not a fan of the slasher smile."

"Who are you? What exactly is it you're after?" Six demanded of whatever entity had Caesar in its grips.

"Am I not human enough?" Caesar stood up, placing all of his weight into his palms pressed flatly against the table.

"What?"

"Am I human enough now?" He repeated. "You said that I lost my humanity."

Realization dawned on him. Six's eyes darted to a cable sticking out of the scientist's neck, disappearing down into the man's shirt. The private meeting they all had with White Knight was brought to the forefront of his mind, but that accusation was not Caesar's. It sounded like White's misunderstanding, how he had twisted Six's words. Though he had never claimed that White lacked humanity, there was no humanity in this, nothing human about him now.


	3. Chapter Three

Six was good at keeping promises. In fact, there was one inscribed on his sword:

_Whether for good or ill, our fates will follow the same path_.

But it seemed like the promises that mattered the most were the ones that went broken. When he had left home, he vowed to return with a cure for his mentor. The deadliest man on earth deserved to die with far more dignity than he had- succumbing to a mutation that left him a mindless monster. It would haunt Six to the end of his days. Regardless of what One said to assuage his guilt, Six failed him.

When he and White Knight were employed at Providence strictly to kill and capture Evos, it seemed like there was no fate worse than becoming one. The daily grind consisted of finishing off the worst of monsters, knowing that they had once been human. Neither one of them wanted to entertain the thought of what two fully trained mercenaries would be like if they were to mutate. Their agreement to one another was that, should either of them begin transforming, they would put the other out of their misery.

He was going to end up breaking his promise again.

"It's him. White's office has been breached." Six stated.

Bobo was lost in the details. "What are you talking about? How can you be sure?"

The bent angle of Caesar's neck made sense now that Six could make out the wires jammed into the back. He wasn't entirely sure what would happen if he attempted to sever the connection between Caesar and White.

"I know him better than anyone." He informed, lips pressing together tightly.

"That was once true." Caesar agreed dryly, taking a step backward, deeper into the shadows where the light of the monitor did not quite reach. The golden glimmer of his eyes wasn't something that could be cloaked by the dark.

Only a single warning was given, an abrupt sting that tore across the side of Six's face. A metal pellet was fired out of the shadows, slitting the flesh of his cheek. Warm blood dribbled down his jaw, pooling at his chin, but he was given no opportunity to so much as wince. A barrage of bullets were fired at him and Bobo.

Glass from the transmission monitor shattered in the background, cutting out their final source of light.

Muscle memory took hold of his body.

In blind swipes of his arms, he used his blades to guard his face and torso. His body was pierced by what he failed to deflect, pain erupting sporadically across his body. The bite of the bullets pushed him backward. He had no choice but to leap behind one of the lab tables, kicking it over to use as a shield.

He could not see where Bobo was.

"Caesar." He called, attempting to get through to the man- if any part of him remained. He received no response except the shower of bullets pelting against the metal table.

"White." He tried instead. Still no reaction, no change to indicate whatever name he called out even mattered. Did the man even remember it, or was he so far gone, driven so mad by nanites that he couldn't recall the person he was anymore? They'd encountered Evos like that before, the ones who lost their presence of mind. Is that what was happening?

No. He'd proved he had some recollection of who he once was. He'd dredged their argument back up. He was there, his mind simply had to be warped and there had to be a way he could get through to him.

"I'm not going to be able to keep my promise to you." He continued speaking, not to garner a response this time. He hoped his words would be an effective distraction. Six's hand slipped into a pocket inside of his coat, fingers curling around his favorite lighter. Unfortunately, he was going to have to sacrifice it.

White only chuckled at him, making him pause.

"You're good at breaking promises. Aren't you, Six?"

Slipping his lighter out of his coat, he began disassembling it, making quick work of modifying it into a flint bomb. He kept talking, dragging the conversation out longer to stall.

"Unfortunately. The only difference now is that I'm not sorry for breaking this one." Many killers sharing his occupation would criticize him for growing weak, as though he'd fallen from grace by being merciful. Once, he'd been so ruthless that he would have been inclined to agree, and killing White would have come so easy. But what those professional killers failed to recognize was that kindness was a discipline too. Now that Love had instilled within him mercy, it was difficult for his body to unlearn its lessons.

He ignited the lighter and hurled it over the lab table. It took seconds before the container erupted, throwing sparks that brightened the room. Light glinted off the broken monitor, bouncing off security camera lenses. Six was able to see once again.

Pushing up from the ground, he lunged over the lab table, straight in Caesar's direction. In a response that was predictably reactionary, White Knight fired at him instead of the open flame. Six knew his eyes never left him. They were always on him. With a sweep of his swords, he redirected the bullets, sending them into the cameras.

Glass shattered, raining down on Bobo's prone form.

"Enough." Six stalked over to Caesar, gripping him by the front of the shirt.

Yanking him closer, Six gripped the cord stuck into the back of the scientist's neck, but not before the lights went out.

* * *

When he regained consciousness, Six found that he could not move or speak.

His limbs and head were bound by wires; thick cords smothered his lips, effectively gagging him. He was suspended in the air in what he recognized as White Knight's office. Scanning his surroundings, he saw that across from him were the bodies of his co-workers cocooned in wire too, but they were not awake. He strained against the cords that held him, testing their strength, but no amount of struggling would loosen them. If anything, they seemed to tighten in response, never giving him an inch.

Slowly, he felt himself slipping.

He was lowered toward the ground. The cords around his mouth began receding so that he could breathe easier. They only stopped moving him once he was inches from the floor, never fully letting go of him. In his peripheral vision, he watched a metallic pod glide out in front of him. It stopped just inches away, splitting open to reveal the face of his former partner, deformed by nanites. Parts of White's body had been replaced by machine, more robotic than human. He stood with four legs that ended in flatten points, the entire lower half of his body gone and made metal.

Beautiful golden eyes regarded Six with horrible coldness. Unlike him, Six wasn't sure if he would find mercy there, and he had to wonder what the purpose of confronting him even was. If the nanites had corrupted him enough, did he even remember that they'd once been friends?

"Finally awake." White greeted him, moving too close for comfort. Six said nothing, observing even his slightest movements closely. If there was truly nothing left within White Knight for Six to search for, if he was now only a mere vessel for the meta nanite, then trying to reason with him was pointless. Dedicating his time toward escape would have been the more logical approach. The indecision made it difficult for him to find the right words, even when his mouth wasn't being smothered by cords.

The cords behind White Knight writhed and whipped in agitation. A cold hand seized Six's jaw, forcing them to make eye contact."Not going to say anything? You seemed so eager to open your mouth before."

His fingers tightened on his face. He leaned in even closer. "What was that you were saying, Six? You know me better than anyone?"

Six grunted. Replying was made difficult by the pressure put on his face. He wasn't going to rescind his statement. They'd fought and bled together enough times that there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he knew him. White's words implicating the contrary nearly insulted him, but forgiveness was also on his mind. _He was not himself, _he tried to remember, but didn't know how he could possibly pull his old friend back from the ledge.

Without thinking, senselessly, Six strained forward as much as the wires allowed. He could barely reach, but White had already unknowingly met him halfway. Closing what little space there was left in between them, he brought their lips together, kissing him softly.


End file.
